GGP Bankruptcy Gets More Complicated

Some of the entities that financed some of the General Growth Properties’ malls want those assets taken out of the REIT’s bankruptcy filing.”The legal separation would give the lenders greater control over the fate of the malls and access to all the excess cash they generate,” according to Reuters. When GGP filed for bankruptcy, it also included 166 of its individual properties as part of the measure. Some lenders, like ING Clarion Capital Loan Services, are saying that the malls it provided loans for are doing fine operationally and that GGP is just using them for leverage in its overall bankruptcy filing.Metropolitan Life Insurance, for one, takes issue with the inclusion of White Marsh Mall, in Baltimore.And in other news, Lord & Taylor has decided to close at GGP’s Landmark Mall in Alexandria, VA. The mall owner was going to tear that asset, also listed in the bankruptcy, down and build an open-air center instead, but the economy had something to say about that.